Erin Whelan was a professional French Horn Player. Then she adopted a beagle mix named Oliver and enrolled him in Puppy Kindergarten at School For The Dogs. Then she did the School For The Dogs Professional Program. Now, she is a trainer and manager at School For The Dogs. Annie, who was once her dog trainer and is now her boss, is a big Erin Whelan fan.  Annie and Erin discuss switching careers, Cesar Millan's best book, what it means to teach dogs virtually, human body language, and more.

Sign up for a session with Erin, at our studio or virtually, at https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/erin/    

Sign up for our master class at http://anniegrossman.com/masterclass

Get invited to our new community app at http://schoolforthedogs.com/podcastcommunity 

The Like Switch

https://amzn.to/2I5LVkl

Cesar's Rules

https://amzn.to/3p4hBrn

---

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

If you work at School for the Dogs, you might, at some point be approached by our boss, with your boss, asking if you would be willing to be interviewed for the School for the Dogs podcast. In this scenario, I am the boss and the person I’m interviewing today is Erin Whelan. Erin started out with us as a client and ended up doing our professional program and is now a trainer and a manager with us. She is wonderful.

I asked some of her coworkers to find adjectives to describe Erin. They said gregarious, honest, humble, fearless, compassionate, down to earth. Witty, Innovative, zealous.  Funny, loyal, team player, empathetic, warm, goofy, creative.

I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation with Erin. You can book a session with Erin, either at our studio or virtually at schoolforthedogs.com/Erin.

[Intro and music]

Annie:

Hello. I am here with Erin Whelan. Did I say it right?

Erin:

You did. That’s very good.

Annie:

I know the H has to be sounded there.

Erin:

It doesn’t have to, but as long as it’s not wheelin, I’m happy.

Annie:

Whelan. And I am super psyched to be talking to you. I’ve known you for quite a while now, actually.

Erin:

Yeah it’s been over six years.

Annie:

So I, gosh, there’s so much to talk about, but why don’t you just kind of tell the story of how you ended up at School for the Dogs? And we can go from there. And actually, why don’t you start off by just explaining what you’re doing now at School for the Dogs, because you’ve been on both sides, the client and staff side, and you’ve worn a lot of hats on the staff side too, so.

Erin:

Well, yeah, so right now at the moment, I am both an associate trainer and interim day school manager at School for the Dogs. So I work at day school, puppy day school. I do private sessions for puppies and basic manners, adolescents, and day training. I also teach prep school and puppy kindergarten.

Annie:

Oh my goodness.  Describe what day school is for people who aren’t familiar.

Erin:

So for day school and puppy day school, those are drop-off training programs.  We have day schools for adult and adolescent dogs, and puppy day school. It’s in the name guys, it’s for puppies. And during both of those programs, the dogs go through some relaxation.  They have the opportunity to play with other dogs...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe